


A Crafty Little Spider

by Murderbirb



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: ALERT: HERRAH HAS BEEN MEAN, Baby Hornet is adorable, Dehumanization, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Herrah is becoming a better person, Herrah is overprotective of Hornet, Herrah needs to fukin chill, Herrah will be mean at one point, Hornet breaks into the palace, Hornet is rebellious, Hornet was feral as a baby, I Don’t Know How to Tag Right, I need more of that good shit, Midwife helps Herrah, Nosks are scary, PK being a good dad, PK needs a nap, Slight dehumanization by Herrah, The Herrah/Vespa tag is joke, This whole thing is gonna be about PK and Hornet bonding, but i warn you, if you want to see that ship, look elsewhere
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:55:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 15,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28464177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Murderbirb/pseuds/Murderbirb
Summary: A small Drabble (I think) series about The Pale King and baby Hornet bonding. Welcome to serotonin land.(Chapters won’t be in timeline order, so don’t be surprised if a later chapter happens earlier in the timeline than an earlier chapter)
Relationships: Herrah the Beast/The Pale King (Hollow Knight), Herrah/Vespa but only if you squint REALLY hard, The Pale King/White Lady (Hollow Knight)
Comments: 64
Kudos: 107





	1. A Spider in a Wyrm’s care

The King was once again spending a whole afternoon in his workshop. For days on end, the King had been trying to find ways to avoid writing his replies to the nobles, as he hated to even read their petty complaints. He had even spent a whole day just training the Pure Vessel so that he would have an excuse to not reply yet. But, now he has to finish the paper work. He is about to hit his deadline, so he once again sat down, and spent most of his day simply writing his replies.

It turns out, though, today was also a day where he would be in custody of his daughter.

He heard a knock on his workshop door. Expecting a retainer, he simply replied “Come in.” He heard the door open quickly, which he thought was odd. Most of the time, the retainers would slowly open the door, as to not interrupt his work. He turned to look at his guest and nearly fell out of his chair when he saw a 6-eyed mask staring down on him. A wave of fear swept over him as he quickly noticed who it was.

“Herrah” he groaned, with a tinge of fear still evident in his voice. The Queen of Deepnest glared down upon him, and she responded with in a voice that sounded just as disappointed. “Hello, Wyrm” she spoke, “I assume you know why I am here today.” The King had a look of confusion grow upon his face as she spoke. When she noticed his expression, she sighed and said, “I should’ve known you wouldn’t remember. Anyways, I’m here to drop off Hornet for a few days. She will be in your care until I return for her.” She reached her arms onto her back and it seemed that she was pulling something off it. As she brought her hands forward, he saw what she grabbed. In her hands was Hornet, who was in a makeshift baby carrier made of silk. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at the King, her two little eyes seemed to shine as she woke up and saw his face. 

“Papa!” She exclaimed as she pulled herself out of her carrier and jumped at her dad. The King was barely able to catch her as she launched herself at him. Her look of pure excitement was in stark contrast of his look of pure worry. He knew that he was the one who approved of the occasional change of custody, as Herrah only spoke of the idea due to how Hornet wanted to see her dad more often, but that didn’t make him any less worried. He didn’t even know how to be a parent. Even worse, though, was that he had to spend today on the responses to the letters. He couldn’t just abandon his work again, could he? And he knew that if he just handed Hornet over to a retainer or another one of his subjects so that they could take care of her until his work was done, then Herrah would be furious. Who knows, maybe she wouldn’t let him see Hornet ever again due to his “negligence”. He was obviously in a state of panic, yet the child in his arms was so blissfully unaware.

Herrah, however, was not as oblivious as her daughter was. “I can see that you are worried, Wyrm.” Her voice was cold and the King tensed up from simply hearing the words leave her mouth. “Perhaps you don’t think you will be able to properly care for her? In that case, I can just take Hornet back with me to Deepnest.” She reached her arms out to pick up Hornet, but before she could pick the little spider up, the Pale King blocked her hands. “No, I can take care of her. I promise that she will be safe in my care.” His words were spoken as stern as he could say them. He knew that she was likely right, that he truly wouldn’t be able to properly care for his daughter, but he knew that this might be his only chance of being able to bond with his child, due to how clingy Herrah was with her. This was his only child that he hadn’t abandoned, the only one that he could show affection to, and he intended to give her that affection.

Herrah had an expression of disappointment. It is obvious that she wanted to able to take Hornet back with her. “Fine” she sighed, as she picked up Hornet from out of the king’s arms. “Now, Hornet, I’m going to be gone for a few days. Your dad here will be taking care of you until then. Do you understand?” Hornet nodded and replied with “Yes, Mama!” Herrah looked upon her and said, “Okay, make sure to behave yourself.” The King could tell from Herrah’s voice that she knew Hornet was in no way going to do that. Herrah gave her daughter a kiss on the forehead before putting her back in the King’s arms and saying “Goodbye, my sweet little spider!” as she left the workshop, waving to her child. Hornet stood up in the kings arms and waved back, “Gowdbye, Mama!” Shortly after, Herrah shut the door of the workshop, and only the King and his daughter remained. Hornet turned around to look at her dad, who in return looked down at her. He only need to look at the innocent little ball of energy to come to a conclusion.

She was going to be quite the handful.


	2. A Crafty Little Spider

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hornet gains an interest in the tools around the Pale King’s workshop. PK must stop her before she causes an explosion. Wholesome happens.

The Pale King was sitting at his desk, with his eyes layed upon a mountain of paperwork. Despite how much time he spent on cutting the pile down, it seemed to somehow always grow larger. His life had become a political nightmare. He was barely getting any sleep, he hasn’t been able to spend time to train the Pure Vessel on it’s soul magic lessons, and it has been so long since he last was able to visit his lovely Root in her gardens. Oh, how he missed her, but he knew he had to finish what he was doing. If he didn’t, his kingdom would fall into shambles, more than it already was. Yet, he just sat there, staring at the mountain of tablets.

Until a light tug on his cloak snapped him out of his thoughts. When he looked down to see the culprit, he was meet with his daughter’s eyes, with a look of annoyance on her face.

“Papa, I’m bowed!” she whined. The King looked down upon her and sighed before replying. “I’m sorry, sweetie, but I have a lot of work to do, and you know how angry your mama will be if I were to leave you in the care of someone else.”

(He felt slightly awkward when referring to his daughter as “sweetie”, but he really did not know how else he should speak to his his daughter. The only fellow parent that has been helping with explaining how to care for his child has been Monomon. His own mother and father obviously hadn’t been any help on showing how to parent a child, unless he chose to starve his daughter for being weak. Besides, Hornet doesn’t seem to have any problem with being called sweetie, so he plans on continuing to speak to her like that.)

“But papa, thew is nodding to do!” The spider princess continued to whine as she grumpily glared up at her dad. The King stared back at his desk as feelings of guilt started to pile upon him. He knew that she was just a child, a very hyperactive one at that, so he should’ve expected her to get bored quick. He questioned to himself what he should do. After a short while, he grabbed some paper, a pen, and ink and handed it to Hornet. “Maybe try drawing something. It might help you if you just have some fun and make some doodles, or something like that.” His voice was obviously very tired, and it wasn’t hard to tell that he just wanted to find a way to keep his child occupied for the time being. Hornet, however, upon seeing the new things her papa gave her, instantly got to work on her drawings.

At first, Hornet’s drawings were nothing more than shapes on paper, or the occasional squiggly line. After a while, though, her drawings started to become something more than just shapes. The King saw many different doodles, ranging from oddly designed tools, to an strange spider-like creature (that was missing a face?!?). But on one piece of paper was a drawing that Hornet seemed to be quite happy about. The drawing was made up of a lot of different faces, many of which the King recognized. There was Hornet, Herrah, himself, the Midwife, his root, and, slightly worryingly, the Pure vessel. There was also the faces of a few others, such as Monomon, Quirrel, Queen Vespa and her knight, and Lurien. And, all around the drawing, there were many, MANY weavers and weaverlings. Put at the top of the page, in big letters, was the words “My Family”. Hornet was holding the picture as high as she could, obviously very proud of what she drew. She handed it to the king. “Wud do you tink of it, papa?”, she asked, tilting her head as she did so. The King examined the picture, and after a while, he handed it back to Hornet while smiling, before giving her an affectionate rub on her head. “It is a lovely picture, sweetie.” Hornet’s face seemed to light up after hearing his response, as she took the drawing back and continued to make her little doodles.

For nearly an hour, Hornet continued to make her little drawings, while the King slowly worked on cutting down the pile of tablets next to him. But after a while, Hornet finally ran out of paper to draw on. When she noticed that she used up her last sheet, she looked up at her dad, who was hard at work trying to wrap his head around the questions being asked on his current document. (why would he need to give the Soul Sanctum even MORE space?) She, once again, started to tug at his robes and, once again, the King looked down at her, but this time, with a look of disappointment present on her face. “Papa, I’m owta paper!” The King sighed before pointing at a cabinet at the side of his workshop. “There should be some papers on the bottom drawer of the cabinet there.”, he said. Hornet instantly darted to the cabinet and opened the drawer, before grabbing as many papers as her tiny arms could hold. Before she closed the drawer, however, she noticed some items at the bottom of it. There were some metal bars, a shiny piece of crystal, some spools of silk, and a few kingsmould pieces. She was instantly entranced by the items, then she took them all out of the drawer. At first, she just messed around with the items individually, but after a small bit of that, she tried putting the items together. After about a minute of an tinkering with the variety of items, she made quite an odd weapon. A short metal bar that had a kingsmould head on the end, to be used as the stabby part, with a piece of decorative crystal on the other side of the bar, and the whole thing being held together by silk. She giggled while swinging her makeshift weapon around. Before long, she looked back at the cabinets and thought to herself, “What’s in the other cabinet?”, and, without any hesitation, dropped her weapon and began looking through the other cabinets that she could reach.

The King had been quite oblivious to his daughter’s antics, as he was focused on his work. That was, until he heard a clatter of metal on the ground. He turned to see the drawer that he directed Hornet to left wide open and nearby it laid a strange tool. He looked slightly over to see the spider princess swinging open another drawer and looking at the insides. When he noticed which one of the drawers she was opening, he quickly stood up and went over to Hornet, in which he swiftly pulled her away from the drawer, resulting in a whine of disappointment coming out of her. He pulled her up to his face before asking ,”What are you doing?!?” Panic was obvious in his voice. Her face was bearing another look of annoyance. “I was gonna make anuda cool ting!”, she said, in a disappointed tone, while pointing at the makeshift weapon on the ground. The King then walked back over to the item, picked it up, and analyzed it. He looked back to his daughter in his arms. “So, you made this?” he asked. She nodded back. “And you wanted to make more of these....odd tools?” She nodded in response again. He thought to himself for a short while. He was surprised that she inherited his love of tinkering, and he knew that through this, he could find something that he could do with her to help bond with her. “Very well, you can continue making these makeshift tools,” Hornet bounced up and down in the King’s arms after hearing that. “But, I will be with you during the creation of these tools. I want to make sure you don’t get hurt.” He expected that she might be disappointed after hearing the other part, but to his surprise, her eyes widened as a look of joy formed on her face, before she jumped and hugged him, or as much as she could. He once again caught her and returned the hug. Well, she did express that she wanted to spend time with him, so it makes sense that she would be this excited. He then brought her over to the cabinets, as he took out a variety of different items and tools, as Hornet jumped out of his arms and began to mess around with all the items. 

After pulling out the tools and trinkets, the two of them proceeded to spend hours together, making Hornet’s tools and weapons. While Hornet put together her creations, the King sat next to her, instructing her on how to properly construct the pieces and making sure she didn’t hurt herself. Every so often, Hornet would run over to her drawings so that she could show her pictures of weapons and asked if she could try making them. During the time, they ended up making a few, much stranger tools. There was a double-headed club, with one side being a blunt orb, while the other side was spiked, a spear with a crystalline edge, and 2 scythes that were held together by rope, which made it a quite dangerous projectile. There were some ideas that had to be scrapped, however, such as a sawblade on a string, but he told Hornet that they could make it when she was older.

After making the last weapon, the King noticed how late it had become. He probably should’ve noticed earlier, as he even had a retainer bring him and his daughter’s dinners to the workshop, since Hornet really didn’t want to stop making her tools. After checking the time, he looked down at Hornet and he could see that she was quite sleepy. She started to lean against him as her eyes closed. “Are you tired?” he said. She replied with nothing but an “Mhm”. “Do you want to go to bed?” he asked again, and once again was meet with nothing but an “Mhm”. After hearing her response, he picked her up and walked out of the workshop. As he carried her to her bedroom, he noticed that she had fell asleep in his arms. A small smile formed on his face when he noticed it. After reaching Hornet’s room, he entered and brought her to her bed. After tucking her into bed, he gave the side of her head an affectionate rub before he walked over to the door to leave. As he left he said one last “Goodnight, sweetie” to her as he closed the door, and he started to walk back to his workshop.

When he sat down at his desk, he already knew that he would have to do an all-nighter if he were to make up for the time he spent with Hornet. Despite knowing that it was nothing but a waste in the long run and that he should’ve just worked on his diplomatic duties, he didn’t regret the time he spent with her. No matter what, nothing would ever be able to replace the joy he felt while helping her make her little creations. Nothing could ever replace the joy that she brought to his life.


	3. Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hornet has a nightmare. PK is there to comfort her.

The King was sitting in silence. He sat back in his chair as he stared forward at what seemed to just be the inky black void of a darkened room. He had already dimmed his light to that of a lumafly lantern as to not disturb the darkness, as he sat alone.

Well, not truly alone.

In the corner that he kept darkened, there was a resting little spider. From what he had seen when he first came in, she was sleeping peacefully. He saw it for himself that she was ok, so why was he so stressed and worried?

His foresight. It was because of his foresight. It had told him of something that worried him so. He has seen that, apparently, something would end up harming his daughter tonight. He dared not question it’s accuracy when he first foresaw it, but from what he had seen so, it seemed that it might’ve been a bit less than true. He did take into consideration that this foresight was another of his, “stress-activated visions”. After all, Lurien’s “little” outburst with Herrah during his meeting with the dreamers today left him very tense. He knew that this type of vision was sometimes less than accurate and it seems that nothing was hurting her, despite his foresight saying that she would be hurt around this time. After a short while of contemplation, the King stood up and headed toward the door. He had work to do and it seems that his foresight was wrong (once again), so why stay here? However, as he lowered his hand onto the doorknob, he heard a sound. It was quiet and soft, yet it seemed to echo in the empty room. He looked back to Hornet’s bed before quickly pacing over.

She was shivering, her pained whimpers filled the room, and her once calm face had switched to a look of anguish.

—————————————————————

She was alone, and she was scared.

She didn’t even know where she was. She knew she was in Deepnest, but this area was completely new to her. She never even visited this location before. And the sound, or lack thereof. Normally, Deepnest was fully of many different sounds. There was the clicks of weavers walking across the stony ground, the scrapes of dirtcarvers digging into the rocks below them, and the squelch and thud of a successful hunt. Yet, this place was quiet, the only sound she could hear was the chitter of legs quickly moving away from her. All she could do was follow the path in front of her. 

As she walked along, she heard a loud scrape behind her. When she turned around, she saw a wall of what seemed to be chitin and it was blocking the path she took in. If she wasn’t in a state of pure panic, she definitely was now. She continued to walk forward, looking around herself, hoping for at least a sign of life that wouldn’t kill her. After reaching the end of the tunnel, she reached an expansive room, but it was too dark to see much around it. She did, though, see the bug that was standing in the middle of the room.

“Mama!” Hornet yelled, before rushing over to her mother. She hugged her mom, or only as much as she could, and she blabbered out words of fear. “Mama, I’m scawed! I wanna go howme!” Her words were spoken with terror in each sentence. All the while, Herrah only replied by laying a hand behind her daughter’s head, and tightly holding it close. Despite the fact that she was with her mom, something still worried Hornet. Her mom didn’t speak to her and was staring forward, not adjusting her masked face to look down at her child. Speaking of the mask, why was she wearing her mask? Hornet was pretty sure she only wore it when she went to a meeting. As she wondered this about her mother, she saw Herrah lift another hand, holding it at her side. Hornet wondered why she was doing that, when Herrah swung her taloned hand straight for Hornet’s neck. Hornet barely reacted in time, escaping her mother’s firm grip before her head was severed. She looked back at her mother, who was finally staring back at her. They simply gazed at each other for a few seconds, before Herrah released a blood curdling screech. Hornet quickly covered her ears and stared in fear at her mom, then she noticed something. Dripping from out of her mother’s mask, was a strange orange liquid. Hornet felt like she had seen it before, but before she could think back, she saw Herrah’s head start to twist, and with a sickening *crack*, Herrah had snapped her own neck. Hornet screamed out “Mama!”, her tone was a mixture of fear and worry. As she got up to go to her mom, Herrah’s mask started to tear at the horns. Before long, the silk of her mask tore, revealing a gaping maw full of teeth directly at the top of her head, with her horns now as mandibles. Hornet screamed in fear, and Herrah replied with another screech, as legs stared to hatch from her flesh. A back-line of spikes protruded from her spine and her chest burst open, revealing her split ribcage and a clump of orange where her organs once were. Hornet was curled against a wall, crying in fear, as her mother, or whatever she had become, stared right at her before charging right at her. But before the monster could stab her, Hornet woke up.

When she awoke, she sat up in a start. Her head was covered in sweat and her eyes were full of tears. It didn’t take long for her to start crying. Shortly after she awoke, however, she felt a hand pressed against her cheek. When she turned to see who it was, she was meet with the face of her father, whose expression was tainted with worry. Before he could say anything, though, she batted away his hand and scooted to the edge of her bed, as she looked fearfully in his direction. His expression of worry now had a look of confusion mixed into it. He asked, “Hornet, are you ok?” Upon hearing him speak to her, her own expression seemed to calm down slightly, but she was still a terrified, shivering mess. “A-awe you w-w-weally papa?”, she said, her eyes still welling with tears. The King, after hearing the question, moved forward a small bit, put his hand on her cheek again, and said “Yes sweetie, it’s me”. After hearing him say that, she ran forward at his chest, held him as tight as she could, and began to cry. The King quickly responded by wrapping his arms around her tiny body as he spoke words of reassurance, “Don’t worry, you’re safe, I’m here.” He could hear her muffled sobs against his cloak, and it was quickly soaked by her tears, but that didn’t matter. His daughter was hurting, and he had to be there for her, at least.

He walked over to the chair at the edge of the room and sat down, using two of his arms to carry his daughter while using another to wipe away her tears. As he sat down, he asked, “Did you have a nightmare?” She didn’t speak, but she did nod her head. The King sighed, “Do you want to talk about it?” She looked up, her face still stained with tears, and replied with an “ok.” She sniffed as she begun to recite her nightmare. “I-I was in a t-tunnow, and it was dawk and qu-quiet and scawy. And d-den a wall bwocked b-b-behind me.” Tears started to roll down her cheeks again, as she continued to speak. “And den, I-I shaw mama and I went to her, b-but she was acting weiwd. She didn’t w-w-wook or speak to me. And d-den, she swashed a c-cwaw at me.” The King noticed that she began to curl up in his arms and he began to feel guilty for asking if she wanted to recite the story. “And den, m-mama tuwned i-into a big, scawy monstaw and she w-wan at me. And den I w-woke up.” It seemed her story was over, and she already was sobbing after retelling her dream. The King put one hand on the back of her head and rubbed in circles around it, hoping to soothe her. As Hornet cried, she heard her father say something, but part of it was more mumble-y than the rest, so she just heard “*mumble* you, rim”. 

As the King sat there, holding his daughter, a wave of guilt hit him when he noticed something. Right before Hornet started to whimper in her sleep, he was about to leave the room. If he had left any earlier, he would’ve left his daughter crying, alone, in darkness. As his feelings of anger toward himself started to stew, he was snapped out of it when he heard the soft voice of his daughter. “Papa?”, she said, “Can I stay with you tonight?” Upon hearing her, he replied, “Yes, sweetie. I’ll stay with you as long as you need me to.” A small smile formed on her face as she curled up in his arms. After that, the king refused to move from the chair. He wouldn’t dare to disturb his daughter, especially when she fell asleep again and, from how it seemed, had a much more pleasant dream.


	4. The Xero Incident (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Herrah discovers that not only had an assassin been able to enter the white palace undetected, but also hurt her daughter, she takes some drastic measures to ensure her daughter safety, no matter who disagrees with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so you know, Herrah is mean in this chapter. She is mean to PK. She is mean to the Pure Vessel. She is fueled by rage, and she won’t hesitate to be a dick. Be warned.

It hurt

Her whole body was aching as she laid on the ground of the courtyard. She watched up, unable to move her head without it aching, until a white glow came into view. Shortly after seeing it, she felt herself being lifted off the ground. As she was held in the arms of the light, she heard a voice, “You’re going to be alright, you’re safe!” Soon she heard what sounded like crying and the voice spoke again. “Stay with me! Don’t leave me!” Afterward, she blacked out. 

————————————————————

Herrah was storming through the palace. After she heard of the news of her daughter’s injury, she came as quick as she could. Now that she was here, she only had one thought on her mind. 

Where was that bastard?!

How dare he! He allowed an assassin to get into his own palace, causing his own daughter to be injured, then when she had finally arrived to take her child back, he doesn’t even show his face? How despicable of him. Once she tracks him down, she ought to tear him apart, limb-from-limb. Maybe leave him in a dirtcarver nest for good measure.

As she walked, though, she smelt a strong scent. It was the scent of blood. She quickly followed the smell, hoping that it would lead her to Hornet, and she was quite disappointed to only find the courtyard, with dried blood staining the grounds. At least she knew where the assassination attempt happened.

As she continued to search the halls for the Wyrm, she found the same scent again. As she followed it, she hoped that it wasn’t just the courtyard again. To her surprise, though, it was indeed a different room, and most likely, the King’s room. The main reason that she suspected that, however, was due to the fact that the Pure Vessel was standing guard in front of the door.

She didn’t want to have to deal with the vessel, but it blocked her way to the King, so she knew she would need to talk to it. When she walked up, she quickly barked out an order, “Move aside, Tool. I have to speak to your bastard sire.” It adjusted it’s head and focused on her. “Did you not hear me? MOVE!” She hissed, before the Vessel finally moved aside. After giving a hard glare to the Vessel, she opened the door, and found a bedroom that was in shambles. There were multiple blankets and pillows strewn about on the floor and the bed itself was covered in sheets, pillows, and blankets, all forming a mound at the center of the bed. She looked around the room, yet there was no Wyrm in sight, and neither was her daughter. But she still smelled the scent of blood, and after following it for a short while, she found the origin. Under the mound, or rather, inside the mound, was the Pale King, with torn robes and scars decorating his torso, curled up around his sleeping daughter, who wearing a red dress that had a large tear on the front, and the torn dress exposed blood-stained bandages that were covering her chest.

Despite the comfort of seeing her daughter safe, she was infuriated by seeing the King with her. After his foolishness today, after how she was hurt because of HIM, how dare he stay with her, and try to act like a comfort source. Herrah at first planned on bringing Hornet home the moment that she found her, then returning to the palace later to give the damned Wyrm a piece of her mind, but now that she has seen how he is acting, after what he’s done, she couldn’t control her anger.

She poked at his face, hoping that he would wake up. When he only replied with a light grumble, she shouted, “Wake up, Wyrm!” That didn’t work either, and she was running out of patience, so she hit him right on the side of the head. He finally was awoken by the blunt force, and he didn’t look happy, as he quickly responded. “Agh! My head! Who the-“. His furious screams were quickly cut-off when he saw Herrah, and he practically shrunk upon making eye-contact with her. “Oh. Hello Herrah.” He spoke in a quiet tone, part because he didn’t want to wake Hornet up, and part because of the pure terror that Herrah’s furious gaze instilled into him. She didn’t reply with such a “calm” tone, as right after he finished speaking, she replied, “Stop trying to act calm, Wyrm. It only makes you look more pathetic, and I don’t have time to deal with that.” The King sighed and slowly sat up, trying his hardest not to wake his daughter up as well. 

“Fine,” the King responded, as he lowered his head, “I assume you want to know what had happened that left Hornet in such a state.” Herrah began to glare at him. “I have no need for your excuses, Wyrm. I know what happened. You were a negligent idiot and you allowed her to get hurt by an assassin.” The King quickly looked back at her and retorted, “That is both an extreme simplification and untrue. While I will admit that I am someone who is at fault, I refuse to take all of the blame, especially when I wasn’t the one who did the deed.” Herrah was about to yell back at him, but the King continued before she could. “That damned assassin Xero did. He was infected and he tried to kill me, but when he noticed that I was refusing to go down, he grabbed Hornet and threatened to kill her if I didn’t give up and allow for my execution. I was planning on surrendering to him, as I didn’t want to see Hornet die as well. I had already allowed the death of so many of my children, I refused to let another one die. I also knew that it should be easy for me to survive, for as long as he didn’t get any infection on me, then the old light couldn’t kill me. Though, despite her guaranteed safety, Hornet didn’t like the idea of letting Xero kill me, so she retaliated and hit him with her wooden needle. After that, I believe that the old light’s rage took over him, as he threw her on the ground and slashed at her chest with his nail. He didn’t last long after that. Hornet, however, was horribly injured. It’s a miracle that she didn’t die from blood loss.” As he said this, he lowered a hand onto Hornet’s head, but before he could, Herrah had a needle at his throat. “If you lay a finger on my daughter, you will wish that the assassin had killed you.” Her voice was bitter and full of anger. Though he moved his hand away from Hornet, he also was quick to respond to Herrah’s threat, with his face now displaying a look of anger as well. “What do you mean ‘Your Daughter’? She’s my daughter as well! Don’t act like you are the only one who was worried for her life!” Though he didn’t like to even deal with them, the King had swiftly started an argument. 

“Well I am still worried for her, as I currently see her sleeping right next to the person who nearly let her die!”

“I already told you, it was the assassin!”

“I don’t care the he did it, I care that you let it happen!” 

“How does that make sense?!? I tried to stop him! I was willing to give up my life to save her’s! It’s not my fault that Hornet chose to retaliate!”

“Don’t act like this is her fault, you filthy piece of invertebrate trash! You let that assassin get in and hurt my daughter! You have no right to blame her!” 

“What do you mean ‘let in’?!? He broke into the palace!”

“Well maybe if you were smart enough to have precautions if an assassin broke in, you wouldn’t have had a problem with him!”

“And maybe if you were responsible enough as to not teach Hornet to make such rash decisions, she wouldn’t have gotten hurt!”

“Don’t you dare blame this on me! YOU were the one that wanted to spend more time with her! YOU were the one that promised that she would be safe in YOUR care! And now, she is hurt because of YOU! YOUR foolishness! YOUR negligence! Her injury is YOUR fault, not mine! You don’t even deserve to have her in your life, and I plan on making sure that you don’t get to even be near her EVER AGAIN!” 

“Wud do you mean?”

The King and Herrah both turned to see that Hornet was wide awake and was staring at both of them. She must’ve been awoken by them screaming at each other. While the Pale King felt guilty for waking her up, Herrah quickly went over to Hornet, picked her up, and hugged her. “Oh, my sweet little spider, I’m so glad you are ok.” 

Hornet, however, was still focused on her question before. “Mama, wud you mean when you said papa wouwdn’t get to be neaw me eva again?” Her words were tinged with worry. Herrah sighed after hearing her. “Hornet, do remember how you got hurt?” The little spider quickly responded, “Yesh. Da scawy man in da awma huwt me.” “Well, my darling, your father had let it happen due to his negligence. It’s because of him that you got hurt.” Hornet looked back at her mom in confusion, “Buwt, papa twied to hewp me!” Herrah shook her head, “He might’ve tried to help you, but he didn’t and you got hurt. I’m not willing to let that happen again.” The King walked toward Herrah, annoyance was obvious on his face. “Herrah, can you just explain what you meant?” Herrah glared at him, before speaking once more, “I expected that you would understand what I meant, but I guess a stupid Wyrm like you would need it spelled out. What I meant was, Hornet will no longer be allowed to visit the palace, or you, ever again, and when you visit for your diplomatic business, you will be forbidden from seeing her during your time there.”

Both the King and Hornet were frozen with shock. Neither said anything for a bit, but the King was first to speak. “You can’t be serious! You must be bluffing!” Herrah looked back at him, “I wouldn’t bluff about something like this, would I?” By the time she finished speaking, Hornet had snapped back and looked at her mom with fear on her pale face. “Do you mean dat I’d neva get to see papa eva again, even when you visit da pawace?” Herrah quickly responded to her, “You won’t be coming with me to the palace when I have a meeting. You will be staying in Deepnest, and if Midwife is busy, you will stay at the hive.” Before Hornet could even respond to her, the King started to talk again, anger obvious in his tone. “You can’t do this Herrah! You are just going to hurt Hornet in the end!” Herrah glared back at him, “You already hurt her so much, why would I let you do any more damage?” The King clenched his fists as tears welled up in his eyes, but his feelings of anger were quickly become feelings of fear and sadness. Herrah then turned around and headed toward the door. She only took a few steps before Hornet began to cry. “Mama, Pwease! I don’t wanna wose papa!” Herrah felt guilt weighing her down from her daughter’s words, but she brushed it off before responding to her. “My dear Hornet, I’m doing this for your own good and safety.” She put her hand on the doorknob and opened the door when the King spoke from across the room. His voice was shaky and tears rolled down his face, yet he tried to look as composed and intimidating as possible. “Herrah, you will stop this instant! If you dare take another step, I will have no choice but to kill you!” Herrah looked back at him, her face portraying a look of doubt. “You wouldn’t dare to do that, would you? It would just hurt Hornet more.” The King stared back, before he looked down at the ground. His legs felt weak, and before he knew it, he was on his knees. She called his bluff. Herrah proceeded to walk out the door, Hornet still crying on her shoulder, and she stood in the the doorframe for a second before she turned around to look at the King before saying, “I won’t let you hurt her ever again.” She then walked out, while closing the door.

The King was unmoving, as he remained on his knees. He should’ve done something, something to stop her before she left, but he knew that there was no point in chasing her down, he would never get his daughter back. The King was on his hands and knees, mourning. He mourned the loss of his daughter. Though she may not be dead, she was gone, and he’d never see her again.

The moment that Xero’s nail connected with her flesh, he knew that she would soon be gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you are surprised by the way that Herrah acted in this chapter, read the Drabble fic “Wait....what” until chapter 10 if you want to get an explanation on how I feel about Herrah.


	5. The Xero Incident (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The King has been restricted from seeing his daughter, which is something that both him and his daughter are upset about. But Hornet isn’t willing to lose her dad that easily.

It had been 2 months since the King was separated from his daughter. While the King was quick to accept it, though quite reluctant to, his daughter wasn’t very accepting of the idea. Even though spent Herrah spent her entire trip back to Deepnest on explaining to Hornet why she believed it was the safest option, Hornet still not only felt pure resentment toward her mother’s choice, but also her mother. It took an entire week for Hornet to leave her room after they got back and during that time, she barely talked to anyone and would turn her back to Herrah when she came in. She only spoke to one person, and it was Midwife when she brought her some food, since Hornet didn’t even leave the room to eat. Even after she had finally left her room, she would constantly avoid Herrah, and really just the other weavers in general. She seemed to wander randomly, searching through cracks and crevices, and, above all, avoiding anyone who got near her. Herrah had been searching for her for a while today, having decided that today was when she would finally confront her daughter, when she saw a red cloak moving around a corner. She quickly ran over, and saw Hornet, who looked surprised, before glaring at her, quickly turning around, and running away. After that, Herrah gave chase, as her daughter dodged past stalactites and jumped over pits, hoping to outrun her. It would’ve been far easier to catch her a month ago, but her wounds had healed since then, and now she could comfortably hop, run, and climb. Despite that, Herrah refused to give up the chase, dodging everything that Hornet tried to lead her into. After nearly 2 minutes, she had finally cornered Hornet, before she picked her up and looked her in the eyes. “Hornet, I need you stop running. I’m worried about you. You keep on avoiding me, and you never speak to me. I just want to know, why?” Deep down, she felt like she already knew, but she needed to hear it from her daughter to be sure.

The little spider grew a look of confusion on her face, which was quickly swapped with anger. “Wud do you mean?!? You know exactwe why!” Herrah face also switched to confusion upon hearing that, which Hornet quickly picked up on, her look of anger only becoming more furious. “How don’t you know?!? Id’s becawse of how mean you awe being to papa! To me!” Upon her hearing that, Herrah sighed before responding, “Hornet, you know exactly why I forbid him from seeing you. He let you get hurt!” Hornet continued to look furiously at her mother. “But he didn’t huwt me! The man in da awmaw did! Papa twied to hewp me!” Herrah once again felt guilt start to weigh her down, but refused to be talked down to by her daughter. “Hornet, I only restricted him because I love you. I wouldn’t dare to endanger you by leaving you in his care. I would never allow it!” She began to raise her tone, and Hornet’s look of anger began to dissipate as she heard her mother. Herrah began to calm down, but before she could start walking home, Hornet spoke one last time, “Sometimes, I feew that you didn’t do it becawse you wuv me, but becawse you hate him.”

After hearing that, Herrah felt a wave of anger hit her. She looked back at Hornet, who quickly noticed her mistake. “I’ve had it up to here with your behavior, young lady! You have been so disrespectful for so long, and I am tired of it!” She put Hornet onto the ground before continuing. “Now, you are going to go back to the den, go to your room, and think about what you’ve done. You understand?” Hornet nodded before she began to walk back to the nest, with her head hung low. Herrah stood there, watching Hornet slowly walk away until she was out of sight.

A few hours later, Herrah was sitting at a table, staring at an empty platter that, only a few minutes ago, had fresh meat lying on it. She was still feeling troubled from her interaction with Hornet earlier, and it turned out that it was quite obvious to others, as when Midwife was passing by, holding a plate of meat that was likely for Hornet, she had stopped and looked at Herrah before speaking to her. “Herrah, are you ok?” She sounded genuinely worried for Herrah. Herrah, however, was questioning how she should respond to the question. She wanted to say that she was fine, to seem like the powerful and unbreakable leader her people thought she was, yet she also seeked comfort from someone, especially someone she knew so well. She replied after a short while of thinking, “No Midwife, I am not ok.” Midwife responded soon after, “As I thought. I saw Hornet return a while ago, and she didn’t look very happy. I assume you finally got to talk to her?” Herrah sighed before speaking again, “Yes, I did. She is still upset about how I restricted her from seeing her father. I expected that she would understand by now.” “Well, it’s not something that she would get over easily. She’s talked many times about how much she misses him.” Herrah quickly looked back at Midwife when she said that. “What?” She said, feelings of confusion flowing through her. “Ah yes, I’ve talked to Hornet a lot over all the times I brought her food. Oh! That reminds me, I think you should see this.” As Midwife spoke, she pulled something out from behind her and handed it to Herrah.

What Midwife had given her was strange, to say the least. It was a metal bar, on one side was a few blades in a crown shape, while on the other side was a Crystal, all held together by silk. The whole thing looked like some type of oversized dagger. Herrah looked back at Midwife before asking, “What is this thing?” Midwife looked back, and replied. “To be truthful, I haven’t the slightest clue. What I do know, however, is that this thing is a source of comfort for Hornet.” Herrah averted her gaze back onto the bar, as Midwife continued talking, “A while ago, I found her sitting on her bed, holding it close to her, but when she noticed me entering the room, she attempted to hide it. After she fully understood that I had seen it, she explained to me what it was. Apparently, it was a item that she made in the King’s workshop, and after he found that she made it, he helped her make multiple other things like it. She keeps it with her, as it is one of the only items that she has that reminds her of what they had done together. She also told me that she had been keeping it hidden from you, as she feared that you would throw it away if you found it. She made me promise to never tell you, but after a while, I felt that I had to inform you. I guess I owe her extra snacks now, heehee!” As Midwife laughed at her own joke, Herrah stared at the tool as guilt hit her like a stag. Did her daughter truly resent her that much? That she feared that she would lose something dear to her is her mother found out about it? Tears welled up at her eyes. She knew that she needed to talk to her about this.

As Midwife finally calmed herself, Herrah looked over to her and asked her a question. “Midwife, would you mind if I came with you to see Hornet? I believe me and her have a bit more to talk about.” Midwife quickly responded, “Of course, Herrah! I believe that we should go immediately, though. She is probably getting hungry right now.” Herrah smiled back to Midwife as she stood to walk alongside her. It was a short walk to Hornet’s room, and when they arrived, they opened the door and-

There was no one there.

Herrah was instantly in a state of shock and fear. “Hornet!” she called out, hoping that her daughter was just messing with her. When she heard no response, she began to search the room. After checking under Hornet’s bed, she turned to Midwife. “Help me search for her.” she commanded, and Midwife quickly got to work, searching around the room as well. After a minute, Herrah heard Midwife gasp behind her. When she turned around to see what it was, she saw something that filled her with dread.

Behind Hornet’s dresser, there was a hole in the wall. It seemed to only be big enough for small bugs to crawl through, but Herrah was instantly terrified when she noticed that it was how Hornet had escaped. After a short bit of thinking, though, her fear turned into anger when she deduced who must have dug it. 

“Wyrm”

—————————————————————

Her plan was working flawlessly. 

Even though she had an unpleasant encounter with her mother, it was still helpful to her plan, as being sent to her room was the perfect cover for her to finish digging her escape route. It turned out that being the child of a Wyrm had more benefits than she could ever imagine. She was already outside of the den when she initiated phase 2 of her plan. As she raced through Deepnest, she avoided being seen by the many weavers and after a short bit of travel, she found the tram to the Ancient Basin, and just in time. As she entered the tram, using a stolen pass, two weavers holding books turned the corner, obviously to use the tram, as they had to deliver the weaver’s knowledge on seals to the King. Hornet quickly hid under a seat, before the weavers entered. She was lucky that neither had spotted her, but she was focusing more on the fact that phase 2 was now a success. While she would’ve just taken the tram after the weavers were done, she knew that it would’ve revealed her location, as why would the tram be used 3 times in 1 day, when it was only supposed to be used twice? After the tram reached it’s destination, Hornet waited for the two weavers to leave before she got out. She quietly followed behind them, being careful to not make any noise. Not after long, they reached the palace, and Hornet was knew it was time. 

Phase 3 of “Operation: See Papa again” was initiated. 


	6. The Xero Incident (Part 3)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hornet infiltrates the White Palace so that she can visit her dad. PK, however, is less than pleased to hear what she did.

Two weavers had walked into the palace, both of them holding some old texts on seals. They had arrived at the palace so that they could hand the information to the King, yet he wasn’t there like he normally was. Instead, they were greeted by a royal retainer, who thanked the two for bringing in the extra research on such short notice. When the weavers asked the retainer where the King was, the retainer simply replied by saying that he was doing important buisness. The weavers sighed in response before exiting the palace. However, right by when the 2 weavers left, another weaver got in.

This weaver, however, was much smaller and didn’t enter in the front gate.

Hornet had chosen that climbing into the palace was a much smarter idea than entering from the front. Well, it was less because it was rational and more because she always wanted to do it. After a minute of climbing, Hornet had pulled herself up to a window and snuck through an open one. After landing on the floor of the Palace, she started her search for her Papa.

Hornet didn’t have much of a plan laid out for how to find her Papa, as she doesn’t even remember the layout of the Palace anymore. Her entire plan after getting in the palace was to find Papa, and probably stay with him for a month or two, but she didn’t know where to start her search. Then she thought of something. His workshop! It was currently pretty late, so he should most likely be in his workshop! She began to head straight for it, as it was one of the only places that she still remembered the location of. After a bit of searching, she found the workshop and entered it, only to see that he wasn’t there. She felt a bit confused that he wasn’t there, but then had another idea, his bedroom. She began to search for that room as well, hoping that he was just asleep, and not just out of the palace. She spent a while searching for it, since she didn’t remember it’s location as well, but eventually found it and, once again opened the door. He wasn’t in bed either. Hornet felt a bit disappointed, since it meant that she would need to track him down. I guess this was a down side to sneaking in. And so, she started her search, and explored every room she passed. The kitchen? No. The courtyard? No. She still couldn’t find him, and finally she came to the conclusion that he, for some reason, wasn’t in the palace at the moment, and she chose to head back to her room. As she walked, she thought of all the reasons he wouldn’t be in the palace, especially when it was so late. Maybe he was with step-mom in her garden? Or he was talking with Ms. Monomon? But she was quickly snapped out of thought when she reached her room, and noticed a familiar person standing in the doorframe.

Of all the places that she expected to find her Papa, it wasn’t here. Yet, there he was, staring blankly into what was once, though basically still is, his daughter’s room. Though, Hornet didn’t spend much time thinking about that, because she instantly ran over to him the moment that she saw him and grabbed his leg, which got a quick yelp out of him. When he looked down, he saw a sight he never thought he would see again, the joyful eyes of his daughter. She looked up at him, quickly noticing his look of shock and what seemed to wet lines across his face. “Was he crying before?”, she asked herself, but before she could answer it, he spoke to her. “Hornet, is that really you?” His voice was soft and quiet, almost inaudible, like if he talked to loud, she would vanish. “Yesh Papa, id’s me.” she said, with a smile on her face. The King quickly picked her up as tears began to stream down his face and then hugged her, with her head going over his shoulder. She hugged him back and tears of joy began to run down her face. “Oh sweetie, I missed you so much.”, he said, as his tears began to fall onto Hornet’s cloak. Hornet hugged him tighter before responding, “I mished you too, Papa.” The King hugged her tighter in response. Hornet wished that this moment would last forever. After a while, though, her father began to look around them, before asking, “Wait, is Herrah here?” Hornet looked back up at him, “No, I came by myshewf.” Upon hearing that, the King grew a look of confusion, with a tint of worry. “Did she lift the restriction?” Hornet shook her head in before replying, “No, I shnuck oud!” The King’s quickly became much more worried after hearing that. “Oh no.” Hornet, however, didn’t share the same worry. In fact, she looked quite proud, “I even dug a tunnew, wike you!” It took a short while for Hornet to notice that the King was panicking, but before she could say anything, her father spoke up. “Oh no, oh gods. We need to get you back to Deepnest, now.”

Hornet was surprised by what he said, and obviously wasn’t happy. After all the work she put into seeing him again, he wanted to bring her back? But she missed him so much! “Bud papa! I don’t wanna go back! Mama is being mean and I miss you! I wanna stay with you!” The tears that rolled down her face were now becoming tears of anger, which the King wiped away with a free hand. “Sweetie, I know you missed me, but you shouldn’t just run away from your mother like that. She obviously is worried about you.” Hornet felt a bit guilty after hearing that, but before she could say anything else, the King began to walk with her still in his arms. 

It didn’t take long for them to exit the palace and reach the tram. The King set Hornet down on a seat before turning on the tram, and then sat down next to her. Shortly after the tram started moving, Hornet looked up at her dad before asking, “Papa, why do you want me to go back? Awen’t you angwy at Mama?” The King gave out a small sigh, “I am angry at her, furious even. I believe that she made the wrong choice on how to react to your injury. Despite all of this, I know that she did it because she loves you. I might’ve done the same in her situation. It is easy to make decisions like that when you are emotional. What I’m trying to say is, she cares for you and I don’t want to take away the person in her life that allowed her to learn how to be better than who she was.” Hornet was perplexed when she heard the last part. “Wud do you mean by dat?” The King looked back at her before he began to explain. “When I first meet Herrah, she was a very.....unpleasant person, to say the least. She was rude, manipulative, and extremely territorial. The only thing she cared about was her lands and her people. The closest thing she had to an ally from outside Deepnest was Queen Vespa, but even then, all they had was an agreement to not attack each other and nothing else, no trade deals, no assistance with defense, nothing. She has done things that I still can’t forgive, and I probably never will. But, I noticed that she has changed, and it’s because of you. She loves you more than anything else, and she grew as a person due to that. After you became friends with Quirrel, she ended speaking with Monomon more, and now they themselves are friends. After she noticed your love of the honey snacks I gave you, she ended up asking for trade with Vespa, giving her silk in return for honey. It didn’t take long for this trade to turn much larger, as Weavers and Hive citizens began to trade independently. Some traded literature, others traded food. Some Weavers and Hive Soldiers traded techniques and tactics. This all resulted in Vespa becoming Herrah’s greatest ally. It’s the entire reason for why the Hive Knight is training you on how to fight. All of this resulted in her changing for the better, and it’s because of you. Herrah loves you so much that she has been willing to change herself so that you could be happy. She truly loves you. I know what it is like to have bad parents, parent who don’t care for you, and Herrah isn’t like that. When you have someone like her, don’t just leave her behind when she makes a mistake, especially when she was just trying to protect you.” Hornet didn’t seem to understand some of what he said, but she understood what was important. Herrah loves her, and she shouldn’t abandon her. 

By the time that the King finished talking, the tram had finally reached it’s destination. The King stood up and motioned for Hornet to follow. She quickly stood up and walked after him, still thinking about what he told her. Right as they both were out of the tram, the King started the trek to the den, with Hornet only slightly behind him. After a short walk, the King noticed something that was odd, the lack of noise. It was dead quiet. The constant sounds of chittering and clicking were creepy enough, but without any noise, Deepnest seemed far scarier. He continued to walk forward, though much more wary, and Hornet stuck much closer to her father. He only stopped when something broke the silence, a loud bang along with some pebble tumbling. He looked around himself, trying to find what ever the threat was. Then, out of nowhere, a glinting piece of metal flew forward, giving the King no time to react, and causing Hornet to yelp in fear.

A needle was embedded right through the King’s upper right arm and into the wall behind him. He screamed in pain before looking at his arm, the chitin cleanly broken through. Hornet ran forward to him but before she could get close, the assailant showed herself. Herrah had quickly darted over, fury was obvious on her face. “So, the bastard shows his face again.” Her voice was rough and sour, and each word was spoken with malice. The King was about to speak back to her, when she clamped a hand against his throat. “Don’t you dare try to give me any excuses, you piece of shit. I’ll make sure, right here and right now, that you suffer for what you’ve done!” She began to twist the needle in his arm, causing him to yell out in agony, but his scream was prevented as Herrah choked him. Hornet ran up to Herrah before screaming, “Mama, No!” She tugged at her mother’s leg, hoping that she would stop. Herrah quickly looked down at her child before speaking. “Hornet, I want you to go back to the den and go to your room. We’ll need to have a talk after this.” she said as she continued to twist the needle. Hornet looked back to her father and saw the pained expression on his face. The mere sight of him in such pain caused tears to start rolling down her face. She quickly looked back to her mother before she continued to tug on her leg. “Mama, stop huwting papa! He didn’t do anyting!” Herrah looked down at her daughter, “How can you say that? He kidnapped you!” “No, he didn’t! He onwy bwought me back!” Hornet yelled out. Herrah took her focus off of her needle so that she could keep talking with her daughter. “Then who dug the hole in your wall?” Hornet looked angry before she responded, “I did! Not papa!”

Herrah had a look of shock on her face as she heard Hornet. So, she really did resent her that much? That’d she tunnel her way out her own home just so that she wouldn’t have to live with her? The sense of guilt once again returned, weighing her down, but this time she didn’t shake it off. Now wasn’t the time to act like she was in the right. Hornet seemed to notice her mother’s guilt, so she continued to explain. “I...I was sad. I feld dat you didn’t wuv me. I wanded to see papa so much, but you wouldn’t led me. I feld angwy and sad, so I just...wan.” Hornet began to tear up, “I’m sowwy dat I made you scared, I just wa-“ she was cut off when Herrah picked her into a hug, tears leaking from her eyes. “Hornet, you don’t have to apologize. I should be the one who apologizes to you. I wanted to keep you safe, yet I ended up hurting you more. Any of your feelings are justified. I should’ve thought about how you felt.” Her voice was in stark contrast to before, now soft and sad. Hornet hugged her back, just as tightly as she did with her father, and tears fell down her face as well. It was odd. Hornet felt happy after getting to hug her mother, more than when she reunited with her father, even though she has been with her mother for a long time.

They were cut out of this moment by a loud *clang*. They both turned to see that the King had pulled Herrah’s needle from his arm. Blood spilled out of it as he focused to heal the injury. All he could manage to do, though, was simply bandage the wound. Herrah then picked up her needle and focused back onto the King. “I guess I might owe you a bit of an apology for stabbing you.” Herrah spoke as if making a joke, which didn’t sit well with the King, but he didn’t dare get into another argument with her, not when Hornet was this happy. Herrah then spoke up again, “Wyrm, though I am happy that you brought Hornet back after she snuck out, I....still feel that I won’t be able to ever trust you with her.” The King sighed, before staring down at the ground. This might’ve been the last time he would get to see Hornet for a long time. He felt upset once again, until Herrah began to speak again. “But, I know that Hornet still cares about you a lot, and I don’t want to hurt her for no good reason, so I’ve decided to lower the restrictions. I won’t stop you from seeing each other when you visit for diplomatic business, as stopping your meetings then doesn’t make sense.” Though the King was slightly annoyed by the way she talked to him, he felt some joy return to him when he heard what she said. The seemed to apply to Hornet but even more so, as she bounced up and down in her mother’s arms. “Do you weally mean it, Mama?” Herrah looked upon her daughter, who had joy shining in her eyes, “Yes dear, I do.” Hornet was overjoyed. Even though she wouldn’t get to see him often, still being able to see her Papa was something that she couldn’t be happier about. “I believe that I should be going now.” The King said, while holding his injured arm, obviously still in pain, but before he began to leave, he picked up Hornet from out of Herrah’s arms and spoke to her. “Goodbye sweetie, I’ll miss you.” He said, before giving her an affectionate rub on her horn and placing her back in Herrah’s arms. Hornet then began to wave to him, “Gowdbye, Papa!” He waved back as he made his way back to the tram, and Herrah turned around to walk back to the den. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn this was difficult for me to write 
> 
> Thanks for reading this far! I plan on making a short epilogue thing, just to explain what would happen after the events of these 3 parts.


	7. Creator update

Hello everyone. Have made this update so that I can say that I’ll be taking a short break from updating this work. It is really enjoyable to write it, but I believe that I should take break after all that I have made recently. I will still be helping with the creation of the “Wait...what” fic. In fact, I recently created a chapter for it, since I have taken the wheel of the “Lurien/Monomon” chapters. So, yeah, there may not be updates for a while.


	8. A Hyperactive Little Child (Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Herrah never expected her child to be this hyperactive at such a young age. She was even more surprised that the Pale King was the only one who was calm about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally, this was only meant to be one chapter, but I split it into 2 so I could take a short break and since I know people have been waiting for a while. So, enjoy!

Herrah didn’t expect that the King would care for his daughter, especially due to how he would react when she spoke of their dalliance. So, she was quite surprised when her scouts reported that the King was approaching the den and, for some reason, was dragging a dead vengefly king behind him. It didn’t take him long to reach the den, with Herrah already waiting for him at the entrance. 

He looked up at Herrah’s face as she glared back at him. “Hello Herrah.” He spoke without even a tinge of awkwardness or fear. Herrah glanced up off him and stared at the Vengefly king. It seemed to be a fresh kill. She looked back at the King before speaking. “Why did you bring that.” It was spoke as an order, and the King was quick to reply. “Well, it’s for the child.” He spoke bluntly, and caught Herrah by surprise. He must be joking, right? “You surely don’t intend to give this to my daughter, do you?” Her face displayed a look of disbelief. The King, however, seemed to be distracted by part of what she said. “Oh, so the child was born with a gender? I believed she would be born genderless, like Wyrms usua-“ He was cut off from speaking when Herrah grabbed the collar of his cloak. “Stop dodging the question, Wyrm. Explain what you mean by that this is for my daughter.” The King pulled her arm off him before he spoke, “Well, she will likely be hungry for meat, so I decided to bring the largest kill I could find. I guarantee she will eat this all in less than a week.” 

Though she got an explanation, Herrah still was confused. “Well, thank you for the food, but I don’t intend to give this to Hornet. Unlike you, I know what babies can and can’t eat.” Her voice was stiff, as she glared at him. The King was going to respond with his reasoning, but quickly focused on another thing she said. “Wait, you named her Hornet? Why that name?” Herrah sighed before she responded, “Well, when the weavers still roamed the wastelands, the wasps and hornets were our greatest, and only, allies. I also thoroughly believe that my daughter will be as strong and swift as them.” She spoke proudly, yet the King had a feeling that there was more reasoning for why his daughter was named “Hornet.” He shook off his thoughts, before he spoke again. “Um, thank you for explaining that to Herrah. May I come in? I didn’t only come here just to drop off this food.” Herrah glared at him. So, he came here to see her daughter. It made sense, but that didn’t keep her from having the urge to take the food from him and lock the entrance to keep him from entering. Yet, she moved aside, allowing the King to enter, before he quickly dropped off the food. “Thank you Herrah.” Herrah gave out a huff before she gestured in a direction. “If you want to see Hornet, then follow me.” She began to walk to her daughter’s room, the King slightly behind her. 

————————————————————

It has been 2 days since The King visited, yet he still hasn’t left. He said that he believed he should stay, as to make sure that his daughter was safe for the few weeks after her birth. While Herrah felt insulted that from this, (does he think I don’t know how to raise a child?!), Midwife convinced her that maybe having him around would be smart, since Hornet is half-Wyrm and having someone who knows how to deal with them would be a good idea. Herrah was reluctant to agree, especially since she didn’t even intend on informing Hornet that she was half-wyrm, but she agreed nonetheless.

Herrah was currently walking over to Hornet’s room with some food in her hands. Well, less of food and more of “Glass of water, blood, and a variety of solids turned to mush”. Though it was disgusting, she knew from experience that it was the perfect thing to give to Hornet at her age. When she reached the door, she waved her hand, silently telling the two weavers guarding the door to move aside, before she entered. The room was quite empty, with only a table and a dresser decorating it. In the center, was a crib, which Herrah wasted no time to walk over to. She placed a hand on one of the edges of the crib before looking in and- 

Hornet wasn’t there.

It didn’t take long for Herrah to start panicking from this realization. She began to frantically search the room, before she thought for a second. 

The Wyrm. 

Her rage quickly rose, as she stormed out of the room to find the Wyrm. She didn’t even speak to the guards about if they saw Hornet. She was sure that the King had done SOMETHING with her daughter. Did he kidnap her? Did he KILL her? It didn’t take much searching for her to find him, as she saw him standing in a doorway, staring into the room in front of him. Herrah didn’t even take the time to remember what room he was staring in, as she ran up to him and grabbed him by the collar, turning his face to her’s. She gave the King no moment to speak before she yelled at him. “What did you do with my daughter?!” She was already pulling her needle off her back when the King began to speak. “I didn’t do anything to her! She’s right there!” He pointed into the room, which Herrah’s gaze quickly followed. 

In the room was Hornet, who was ripping apart and eating the flesh of some dead dirtcarvers. The King hoped that Herrah would calm down a bit, but it seemed that he only grew more angered. “Why did you just take her without telling me?!” She looked at him angrily. He sighed before he spoke again. “First of all, you would’ve said no. Second, I didn’t take her out of her room. She probably escaped on her own. I just found her trying to get into this room. She was probably hungry for solid meat, like most infant wyrms. So, I let her in and stayed to make sure she didn’t choke, or something.” 

Herrah grunted after hearing that. She hated it when he brought up that Hornet was half Wyrm. She walked over to Hornet and as she approached, Hornet took her focus off her food and onto her mother. Her eyes narrowed as she focused on Herrah, who was lowering her arms to pick up Hornet. “Come, Hornet. We should go back to your room.” Herrah’s voice was gentle, yet Hornet seemed to get more and more agitated as Herrah got closer. The King noticed what Herrah was doing and shouted out, “Herrah, No!” But by the time he spoke, Hornet had lunged at her mother, embedding her teeth into her shoulder. Herrah screamed out in pain before quickly putting her hands in Hornet, trying to pull her off. “Gah! Hornet, stop this instant! Fuck, ow!” 

It didn’t take long for the King to come over and intervene. He approached Herrah, before clicking his mandibles. This quickly got the attention of Hornet, who pulled her teeth out of Herrah’s flesh so she could turn to him, releasing a small chitter as she did so. He reached his arms up and effortlessly took her off of Herrah, before holding her close to his chest. He chittered back to her, as she looked up at him. They chittered back-and-forth to each other for a bit, until Hornet leaned into the King’s chest, looking much less tense. The King sighed and looked up at Herrah, who was holding her wound in pain. “Just because Hornet is an infant doesn’t mean she isn’t territorial with her food. Most Wyrms are like that. If you need to get her away from what she is eating, you need to know how to calm her down.” Herrah glared back at him before responding, “Thanks for the advice.” She didn’t seem too pleased, as she walked towards the door. It didn’t take long for the King to speak up again. “Do you need any help with your wound? It looks quite bad.” She turned to look at the King, before her response. “I think I’ll be ok on my own.” She shut the door behind her and quickly began to run to find the medical supplies. Thank gods that Hornet’s poison glands haven’t developed yet.


	9. Another Announcement

Hello everyone! I’m making this announcement to say that I might not update this fic for a while, since I have began to put a lot of work into my new “Fallen King” AU. I hope you all are ok with that!


	10. A Hyperactive Little Child (Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Herrah learns about another effect that the King’s Wyrm genes had on her daughter.

Herrah was at a table eating her dinner, which was obviously 90% meat. It had been quite a long day, from speaking to the King, keeping her peace treaty with the Hive in order, hunting the last nosks, and, most of all, dealing with Hornet. For a 2-week-old baby, she was quite the handful. She had escaped her room about 23 times so far, and Herrah is still trying to find out how she escaped the last couple of times. Not to mention her insatiable appetite. Herrah tried to give her daughter liquified food for a while, but ever since she broke out of her room to eat the raw meat in storage, Herrah decided to just start feeding her meat instead. She really didn’t want to get another scar on her shoulder. The last few days had been nothing but stress, so it was nice to finally have some peace and quiet. Well, not for long, as Herrah heard a voice call out.

“I’M HUNGWY!”

Startled by the noise, Herrah quickly turned to see the source of the noise. After finding nothing, she stood up and began the search, only to hear the voice again.

“I’m hungwy! I wanna eat!”

She quickly followed to where she heard the voice come from only to notice something odd. The guards that were normally in front of Hornet’s room were missing, and the door was open. Herrah quickly went in, suspecting that it was the source of the noise. In the room, she saw the two guards again, who were looking into Hornet’s crib. Herrah rushed over to it and pushed the guards aside. In the crib was Hornet, who was standing up and looking up at her mother with the most irritated face she could pull off. Upon seeing her daughter safe, she turned around to look at the two guards, her relieved expressions now turned to one of anger.

“Why did you leave your posts?” She said sternly, which quickly got a response from one of the guards. “Well, um, we were guarding the door until we heard a voice from in the room. When we went in, all we found was the Princess, but when we checked on the Princess, she yelled at us that she was hungry. We don’t know how, but she did!” 

Herrah had an unimpressed look on her face. Sure, her daughter was oddly strong and smart for her age, but she surely couldn’t speak yet. She turned to the other guard and spoke to them. “How about you tell me what really happened here.” The guard, however, looked at tad confused. “But, Queen Herrah, that wasn’t a lie. That’s exactly what happened!”

Herrah’s expression switched from unimpressed to annoyed. “Is this some sort of joke? Are you seriously trying to screw with me? You two are going to tell me why you are doing this right now or I will-“ She was cut of from speaking when she felt a tug on her arm, and she turned to see her daughter staring right at her. “Mama, I’m hungwy!” She said.

To say that Herrah was surprised would be an understatement. She was already shocked by how strong and smart her daughter was, despite being a baby, but her knowing how to speak fluent Hallownestese was something she could never expect. Herrah was snapped back from her thoughts as Hornet kept tugging at her arm, getting grumpier by the second. A short sigh came out of her, before she picked up her daughter and said “Ok Sweetie. Let’s get you some food.” 

Herrah brought her daughter with her back down to the dining room and placed her on the table. She planned to grab some food from storage, but before she could even leave the room, Hornet was already digging into the meat from Herrah’s meal. She sighed before she sat down in her chair, deciding that she’ll just get herself some more food after putting Hornet back to bed. When she meets up with the King next, she would have hundreds of questions to ask him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is back, baby! Expect more common updates in the future.


	11. Breakdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Herrah accidentally causes the King to have a meltdown, and she doesn’t know how she did it.

The King was walking out of the stag station in the Distant Village, and was immediately uncomfortable. The den was the tamer area of Deepnest, yet it still sent chills down his spine from all the creepy noises and occasional roars from the beasts of Deepnest. He quickly moved from out of the Village and made his way to Herrah’s den, which was hidden away, but the King had travelled here enough to know how to get there easily.

He arrived at the den shortly after and entered. After a small bit of wandering, he found Herrah, who was looking quite displeased. A few, awkward seconds passed before the King piped up, desperate to break the silence. “Hello, Herrah. I am once again sorry for requesting this meeting at such short notice, but I believe it is of the utmost importance.”

Herrah glared back at him before responding. “It better be as important as you think it is. I had to cancel an expedition to be here. Only a few Nosks are alive, and I intend to hunt them all down.”

The King sighed. “Well, it is important. I assume you remember all the terms for our.....dalliance?” The King had taken his vision off of Herrah as he spoke. He got very uncomfortable about speaking of the dalliance in front of Herrah, but he had to now.

“Yes, of course I do.” Herrah responded.

“Well, I believe that you haven’t been upholding your part of our deal.” The King said.

It quickly got Herrah’s attention, and she scowled at the King before speaking back. “What do you mean? I become a dreamer for you and give you research on seals, you give me a child. It’s that simple, and I have definitely been upholding my half of the deal.”

The King had a tinge of confusion on his face before responding. “While I’ll admit, you have largely been holding up your part, you have been slacking recently. I haven’t gotten a single shipment of research for over 3 months. If you have simply run out of items of research, you should’ve at least sent a message to tell me that.”

A look of anger quickly formed on Herrah’s face. She spoke soon after, consistently raising her tone. “Oh, so just because I am helping you, I should dedicate all my time to doing your work? I’m SOOO sorry that I have to lead my people, set out on hunts, and care for my daughter! How selfish of me!”

It didn’t take long for the King to notice his mistake. He immediately tried to correct himself. “I’m at sorry for the rudeness, but it is still important that I get the research on the seals finished. If I am not able to get it done in time, there will be dire consequences.”

Herrah seemed just as, if not more, angry with the King. “Don’t act like time is so limited, Wyrm! Your vessel is still growing, and it will take years for it to grow to where it will be sealed. Don’t act like you need to finish the seals by tomorrow!” 

Just like Herrah, the King grew angrier after hearing what she said, though he wasn’t as menacing as she was, especially due to his now uneasy breaths. “I need to make sure that the seal is perfect! I have made too many sacrifices in order to remove the Old Light’s dominion over the people’s minds to make a risk that could ruin everything! What you are doing is not only putting my people at stake, but the people of Deepnest too!”

Rage quickly overwhelmed Herrah. How dare this Wyrm act like he knows what is best for her people?! “Don’t you dare act like you know what my people need!” She yelled, “We both know that you don’t care for Deepnest in the slightest, that you wouldn’t care at all if Deepnest got taken over by the infection!” All her words were poisonous and toxic, easily getting into the King’s head

The King looked like he was about to rebut, but any words turned into a croak, as he began to hyperventilate and his body slightly began to shake. Sadly, Herrah didn’t pick up on any of his body language, and she continued her verbal assault.

“You only care about your pathetic kingdom! You are the most useless, pathetic, selfish creature I have ever met! You’d throw everything away to save the simple IDEA of your kingdom, yet you never think ahead, despite being a creature with foresight! You are nothing but a sad excuse for a bug!” She had finally stopped yelling and focused back onto the King, only to see something she never expected to ever see.

The King was crying.

Herrah quickly became confused. “Why are you crying.” She said bluntly, as an order. 

The King was standing upright with tears rolling down his face. His whole body was shaking. He said nothing in response to Herrah. 

Herrah’s patience was already running thin, and the lack of response didn’t help. “Wyrm, you are going to be explain this now. Did I say something or....is this some kind of trick to make me feel bad for you?!” She began to raise her tone again. 

The King only began to shake more as Herrah spoke, but this time, he responded to her words. “Why would this matter to you?” 

“Because you’ve never done this, in front of me at least! I’ve known you are an emotional mess, but I’ve never heard anything about you randomly breaking into tears like a baby! Now, you will tell me WHY you are crying now, and if this is some sort of attempt to manipulate me me, I swear I will fucking beat you to a pulp!” 

The King put his hands on the side of his head, like he was having a headache, and a look of distress appeared on his face. “Be quiet.” He managed to mumble out. 

Herrah’s face was still painted with anger, and the pathetic way that the King was acting made her feel even more. “He just wants you to feel bad for him, so you’ll do what he tells you to do.” She told herself.

“I’m fucking tired of how you are wallowing, Wyrm! I know what your plan is! You want me to feel bad, don’t you?! So I’ll throw away everything just to fucking appease you?! Well, I’m not going to to do that, you piece of-“ 

“BE QUIET!” The King yelled out, catching Herrah slightly by surprise. What surprised her more was that he had summoned his soul nail. A furious look appeared on his face, seeming as if he was about to attack Herrah, but it didn’t take long for his expression to switch from rage to sadness, as his tears continued to run down his face. “Be quiet...leave me alone...” he managed to croak out, as his nail dissipated and he slowly fell to the ground. Soon, he was on his knees, with his head in his hands as he cried. Herrah was surprised by how extreme it became. Perhaps he wasn’t crying in a feeble attempt to convince her. 

Unfortunately for her, her thoughts were cut short, as she heard light footsteps approaching, with a small voice to accompany them. 

“Mama? Papa?” The owner of the voice soon stepped out, revealing Hornet, who was holding a small Mosscreep in her hand. “Why are you yewwing at each othaw?” Her face was painted with worry. 

Herrah felt a small trickle of guilt hit her, knowing she and the King must’ve accidentally woken up Hornet. She was about to say something, but before she could, Hornet saw her dad weeping on the floor and ran over.

“Papa!” She yelled out and grabbed his arm. “Papa, awe you ok? Why awe you cwying?” The King, however, could barely respond, his voice fully choked by tears. Hornet, however, wasn’t quick to give up, as she began to scan the room, looking for something to comfort her father. After a short while, she looks back at her hands and sees the Mosscreep plush.

Of course! She quickly shoves the plush into her father’s arms, hoping it would help. The King took his face off his hands to focus on the plush. It seemed that the King might’ve been calming down, but shortly after, he broke down again, and he tightly clutches the plush Mosscreep as tears poured from his eyes. Hornet’s face was a mixture of worry and confusion, before she ran out of the room and soon returned, holding even more plushes, which she shoved into the arms of her father. 

This distraction for Hornet was giving Herrah time to think, time to think about one thing: what had caused the King to break down? She began to list her ideas. Maybe he was actually guilty? “No” she thought, “He cares far too much for his foolish kingdom for him to feel guilty about me needing time to help my people.” Maybe being in Deepnest made him uncomfortable and it caused him to break down? “Barely probable” she thought again, “He has always been obviously uncomfortable, but he has never cried from it before.” She decided that maybe she should think back to what the King had said when he began to cry, but there wasn’t much to think back to, as all the King talked about was for her to be...quiet. Wait. 

Did the King cry because she yelled at him? Was he that fragile? That pathetic? So pathetic that he would burst into tears when yelled at like some child? She looked back over to the King, who had many stuffed critters around him, and it seems that Hornet has resolved to just hug her father instead of collecting more toys. 

When she first met him, he acted so high and mighty. He built in her territory without her permission. He acted like he knew everything. Who knew that that King would be so weak-willed when yelled at. 

At least she would have a new topic to gossip about. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sure you are wondering why PK had this breakdown from being yelled at, and you’ll get an explanation in the next chapter.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey y’all! I got a discord server! If you wanna join, use this link 
> 
> https://discord.gg/gmh5qsFC


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